433, and in J.A.S.B. XXXIV. Pt. I. p. 27
seqq.; Ramus. I. 318; Amyot, XIV. 266, 269; Pallegoix, I. 196;
Bowring, I. 41, 72; Phayre in J.A.S.B. XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 102;
Ain Akb. 80; Mouhot, I. 70; Roe and Fryer, reprint, 1873, p. 271.)
Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which
carried the travellers south-east or south-west of Java to the land of
Boeach (for Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that
situation. (See e.g. the map of the world by P. Plancius in Linschoten.)
And this has sometimes been adduced to prove an early knowledge of
Australia. Mr. Major has treated this question ably in his interesting
essay on the early notices of Australia.
[1] [From the Hsing-ch'a Sheng-lan, by Fei Hsin.]
[2] The extract of which this is the substance I owe to the kindness of
Professor J. Summers, formerly of King's College.
[3] I am happy to express my obligation to the remarks of my lamented
friend Lieutenant Garnier, for light on this subject, which has led to
an entire reform in the present note. (See his excellent Historical
Essay, forming ch. v. of the great "Voyage d'Exploration en
Indo-Chine," pp. 136-137).
[4] The Kakula of Ibn Batuta was probably on the coast of Locac.
The Kamarah Komar of the same traveller and other Arab writers,
I have elsewhere suggested to be Khmer, or Kamboja Proper. (See
I.B. IV. 240; Cathay, 469, 519.) Kakula and Kamarah
were both in "Mul-Java"; and the king of this undetermined
country, whom Wassaf states to have submitted to Kublai in 1291, was
called Sri Rama. It is possible that this was Phra Rama of
Sukkothai. (See Cathay, 519; Elliot, III. 27)
[5] Mr. G Phillips supposes the name locac to be Ligor, or rather lakhon
as the Siamese call it. But it seems to me pretty clear from what has
been said the Lo-kok though including Ligor, is a different name from
Lakhon. The latter is a corruption of the Sanskrit, Nagara, "city."
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY MALAIUR
When you leave Locac and sail for 500 miles towards the south, you come to
an island called PENTAM, a very wild place. All the wood that grows
thereon consists of odoriferous trees.[NOTE 1] There is no more to say
about it; so let us sail about sixty miles further between those two
Islands. Throughout this distance there is but four paces' depth of water,
so that great ships in passing this channel have to lift their rudders,
for they draw nearly as much water as that.[NOTE 2]
And when you have gone these 60 miles, and again about 30 more, you come
to an Island which forms a Kingdom, and is called MALAIUR. The people have
a King of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is a fine and noble
one, and there is great trade carried on there. All kinds of spicery are
to be found there, and all other necessaries of life.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1. - Pentam, or as in Ram. Pentan, is no doubt the Bintang of our
maps, more properly BENTAN, a considerable Island at the eastern extremity
of the Straits of Malacca. It appears in the list, published by Dulaurier
from a Javanese Inscription, of the kingdoms conquered in the 15th century
by the sovereigns reigning at Majapahit in Java. (J.A. ser. IV. tom.
xiii. 532.) Bintang was for a long time after the Portuguese conquest of
Malacca the chief residence of the Malay Sultans who had been expelled by
that conquest, and it still nominally belongs to the Sultan of Johore, the
descendant of those princes, though in fact ruled by the Dutch, whose port
of Rhio stands on a small island close to its western shore. It is the
Bintao of the Portuguese whereof Camoens speaks as the persistent enemy
of Malacca (X. 57).
[Cf. Professor Schlegel's Geog. Notes, VI. Ma-it; regarding the
odoriferous trees, Professor Schlegel remarks (p. 20) that they were
probably santal trees. - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - There is a good deal of confusion in the text of this chapter.
Here we have a passage spoken of between "those two Islands," when only
one island seems to have been mentioned. But I imagine the other "island"
in the traveller's mind to be the continuation of the same Locac, i.e.
the Malay Peninsula (included by him under that name), which he has
coasted for 500 miles. This is confirmed by Ramusio, and the old Latin
editions (as Mueller's): "between the kingdom of Locac and the Island of
Pentan." The passage in question is the Strait of Singapore, or as the old
navigators called it, the Straits of Gobernador, having the mainland of
the Peninsula and the Island of Singapore, on the one side, and the
Islands of Bintang and Batang on the other. The length of the strait is
roughly 60 geographical miles, or a little more; and I see in a route
given in the Lettres Edifiantes (II. p. 118) that the length of
navigation is so stated: "Le detroit de Gobernador a vingt lieues de long,
et est for difficile quand on n'y a jamais passe."
The Venetian passo was 5 feet. Marco here alludes to the well-known
practice with the Chinese junks of raising the rudder, for which they have
a special arrangement, which is indicated in the cut at p. 248.
NOTE 3. - There is a difficulty here about the indications, carrying us, as
they do, first 60 miles through the Strait, and then 30 miles further to
the Island Kingdom and city of Malaiur. There is also a singular variation
in the readings as to this city and island. The G.T. has "Une isle qe
est roiame, et s'apelle Malanir e l'isle Pentam." The Crusca has the
same, only reading Malavir.